The Silent Killer
by HorcruxCupcake
Summary: So how do you tell your family you have cancer? This is a story about Benjamin and Katherine before she dies and the things they have to face. Sorry about the title I couldn't think of anything more inventive! :)
1. Chapter 1

The sun was shining and making the raindrops from the night glisten before they evaporated off into their warm surroundings. Flowers whistled in the breeze while bees hovered around them trying to get the last of the sweet tasting honey, and everything was perfect.

Thud, went the ball as it slammed into Dylan's arms, he grasped it into my firm grip and sent it spinning through the air like a shuttle speeding through space. His little sister jumped high but the ball overshot her and landed right at the top of the hill, they both watched as it started rolling down the hill, the giant mountainous hill that lead down into the valley below. It was quite a long way down and even if they started chasing it now the ball would reach the bottom before they reached it.

"You go and get it, you should have caught it." Dylan exclaimed.

"No you threw it, you should get it!"

The argument went on for quite a long time, until their dad who had obviously been listening to the argument yelled over "For God's sake both of you go and get it!"

So we started going down the hill. Down and down and down we went, until we were half way there. "I'm tired" Rosie, Dylan's little sister, complained and she flung herself onto the floor and started to feign sleep.

"Come on, we're almost at the bottom now." he lied.

"No were not" she replied "…and after we have got to the bottom we have to climb back up."

"Alright, if you're going be a girl about it."

He knew that would stir a reaction from her, and sure enough she got up straight away and said "The only girl around here is you". Everyone always says that if you still want to be in one piece the next day, never call Rosie weak, or imply it. _'Hopefully she'll be too tired when we get home and then she'll forget about the insult, so should I be safe'_ thought Dylan as he followed Rosie down the hill.

She soon ran up to him with the ball and screamed as she ran past "Last one up is a lo-ser!".

"You're on!" he yelled back, and his advantage of longer legs meant he was soon streaming past her at full speed. Dylan reached the top and looked down; Rosie had got quite a way to go and seeing he had beaten her she slowed to a walk. He flopped down on the cool grass and waited still trying to gain his breath. He could hear his parents' voices in the distance and at first he tried not to listen but eventually it became inevitable.

"When I came back from the doctors this morning I told you nothing was wrong. Well that wasn't exactly true." Catherine said lying in the arms of her husband.

"Why what's wrong?" Benjamin asked suddenly all worried.

"Ok well I don't want to worry you and I'll be fine, I didn't tell you this morning because I didn't want the kids to find out. But I have lung cancer."

"What?" Catherine explained to Benjamin everything she had been told at the doctors and while they had this conversation, Dylan was crouching down peering through the bushes listening. He felt guilty because he wasn't supposed to find out but when that feeling started to wear off he only felt frustration because he thought he had a right to know.

"How serious is it? How long have you had it for?" Benjamin asked

"Not long and I'm going to be fine, the doctors said it can be cured and I've got to start my treatment in the next couple of days so we'll just have to wait and see what happens." Catherine replied as she turned to look at him.

He leant forwards and pressed a kiss to her forehead "Nothing is going to happen, you'll recover in no time and I'm going to be with you the whole way. I promise."

After that Dylan didn't get to here anymore of his parents' conversation because Rosie had caught up with him and was running past saying "I'm going to beat you to mum and dad!"

He followed her slowly not bothering to run; he was no longer in the mood to play games and just wanted to go home.

"Hi you two, are you alright?" Catherine said as her kids approached her.

"Yeah, I'm bored can we go back home now?"

"If you want, we were going to hire some bikes and cycle around the park on one of the trails"

"I'm not really bothered"

"Aww!" moaned Rosie "I want to go biking, you're so boring Dylan."

"Whatever I'm just going to wait in the car." And he turned around and started walking over to the car. As he got inside he couldn't stop fresh tears falling from his eyes as realisation hit him. Being alone with his thoughts was probably worse than being with his family and pretending like nothing happened.

Back on the field Rosie was complaining about Dylan saying "he always spoils everything" but Catherine was only half listening because she was watching her son and she knew something was bothering him.

"Don't worry darling, we'll go biking some other time, ok?" said Benjamin trying to calm Rosie down.

"Hold on, you wait here I'm just going to talk to Dylan" said Catherine. Benjamin nodded in reply and she got up and walked over to the car.

When she reached it she looked in through the back window and saw Dylan curled up and crying with his back towards to door, she tapped on the window so he knew she was there and he jumped up startled hastily trying to wipe the tears from his cheeks.

"Hey what's the matter" Catherine said as she opened to door and sat down on the back seat

Dylan looked at her with tear filled eyes and said "Promise you won't get mad?"

Catherine shook her head "no, why?" she asked softly in reply.

He looked down at his lap as he spoke not wanting to see her face "I heard you and dad talking a minute ago before Rosie came back up the hill." When she said nothing he looked up at her face and said "I'm sorry I didn't mean to, I just heard."

"I know, I'm not mad, I just… I didn't want you to find out like that; you had a right to be told properly." She pulled him into a hug and he cried into her arms

"I don't want you to go"

"Hey ssh come on, I'm not going anywhere. The doctors said there is a perfectly good chance of full recovery so don't write me off just yet" she smiled trying to lighten the atmosphere.

Neither of them noticed Benjamin and Rosie walking up to the car and they both jumped when the car door opened "We were wondering where you were and if you're coming biking." He stopped noticing his wife and son had both been crying "Are you all right?"

"Dylan overheard us talking when Rosie was fetching the ball"

"Oh" he said "Do you want to just get home and we can talk about it more then?" Catherine nodded and got out of the back of the car so Rosie could climb in who had stopped whinging and was now wondering what on earth was going on. She didn't say anything because she knew it must be serious because Dylan was crying and he would never be seen dead crying under normal circumstances.

Benjamin started the engine and the Mee family drove home in silence not knowing what to say to each other. Catherine was worried because although she'd told her husband and son that the statistics of full recovery were promising she knew they weren't and she just hoped that Dylan and Rosie would be alright without her. She knew what it was like to grow up without a mother and she wished she didn't have to put her children through that ordeal. At last the family pulled up on their drive and started to clamber out of the car, unfortunately there was someone already stood on the doorstep.

"Bloody hell" Catherine whispered under her breath.

"What?" Benjamin asked as he had clearly not seen the figure standing waving at them or the six people who were walking from the back of the house, looking to see if anybody was home.

"What's my mother doing here?"

He looked up and sighed, he knew the last people Catherine wanted to see right now were her relatives from England and the bags they were carrying looked as though they had come to stay for quite a while. He walked to the boot and started to pull out the picnic rug and box with the leftover food in. Rosie noticing her cousins jumped out and ran over to them giving everyone a hug.

"I've missed you auntie Rebecca" said Rosie as her aunt lifted her up "I've missed you too Rosie, look how grown up you are, you were only four when I last saw you" Rosie smiled as Rebecca put her down realising that she was heavier than she looked. Catherine waited until Benjamin had got the bag out of the boot (taking as long as possible) and then they walked up the drive onto the porch with Dylan trailing behind.

"Hello Catherine, said Margaret as she pulled her into a hug"

"Hi mum, what are you all doing here?"

"Visiting you of course. It's the summer holidays for the kids and we haven't seen you in ages so we thought we'd come and surprise you!"

"Oh great…that's wonderful" Catherine said as she plastered a false smile across her face. Margaret didn't notice her daughter's hesitation and soon the whole family were seated in the living room which consisted of Catherine; Benjamin; Dylan; Rosie; Margaret and Peter, Catherine's parents; Rebecca, her sister; James, her brother-in-law and Rebecca and James' three children: Jessica, Joe and Tom.

'_Why did we buy such a big house and invite them to stay whenever they wanted?'_ Catherine thought as she sipped her tea, one of the reasons they had moved to America was to get away from her family. Lovely as they were they seemed to annoy Catherine very easily and today was really not the best day for them to show up on their doorstep announcing that they will be staying with them in America for the next six weeks. This also meant that she would have to tell her family about the cancer, she probably would have done eventually of course but now they were going to find out virtually straight away and this was much sooner than she would have liked. Now she was going to have to put up with her mother constantly fussing over her and her sisters worried glances not to mention her father who would most likely want to accompany her to every treatment procedure.

"Dylan you're very quiet tonight, you used to never shut up" said James as the conversation died down.

"I'm just tired" Dylan said "I think I'm just going to go to bed"

"Alright, it's been a long day" said Benjamin and Dylan got up and gave his mother a hug before he went upstairs. As he did so Catherine quietly whispered in his ear so no one but Benjamin sitting next to her could hear "It's going to be alright, you know."

"Yeah, I love you"

"I love you too, nigh nigh."

Dylan gave his mum a smile and trailed off upstairs. To anybody else in the room it looked as though Dylan was giving Catherine a normal bedtime hug but Rosie knew different and was too young to realise that Catherine didn't want the rest of her extended family to know anything yet.

"Why was Dylan upset earlier?" she asked looking at her mum and dad.

"He was just worried about something, it doesn't matter now though" replied Benjamin "I think it's time you went to bed too missy, it's getting late" he stood up and put her on his shoulders and she giggled as he went out of the room and took her upstairs.

After that everyone sorted sleeping arrangements out and traipsed upstairs to bed, but Margaret hadn't forgotten what Rosie had said even though making them forget had clearly been Benjamin's objective. She intended to find out the reason why Dylan had been upset because, despite what Benjamin had said, from the way Dylan went and gave Catherine a hug it did matter to him.

"Are you ok?" Benjamin asked as him and Catherine climbed into bed.

"I'm as ok as I'm ever going to be with my mother and father in this house." Replied Catherine exasperatedly, she turned to look at Benjamin and sighed "Yes, I'm fine you don't need to worry."

"I always worry" he said as he lay down and turned onto his sighed.

Catherine smiled and lay down behind him putting her arm around him "You don't need to worry any more than normal then."

Catherine drifted off to sleep, but Benjamin couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened and everything that was going to happen. As the hour hand on the clock ticked over to 2 he slowly sat up so as not to wake Catherine and got out of bed as quietly as he could. He just needed to calm himself down so he went downstairs and made himself a cup of tea. Little did he know that was someone else I the house who couldn't sleep either. Margaret, hearing someone going downstairs, got out of bed and walked down to the kitchen; entering the room she saw her son-in-law absentmindedly stirring the tea bag round in the milk while he waiting for the tea to mash. He didn't notice here presence to start with so she cleared her throat to make herself known.

"Oh hi" Benjamin said "You couldn't get to sleep either?"

"Probably jet lag" Margaret smiled

"Do you want a cup of tea?" Benjamin asked even though he was already getting another cup out of the cupboard.

"Yes please"

When the tea had been poured they sat in silence for a minute or two sipping at their tea until Margaret asked "Is everything alright with Dylan, only Rosie said he was upset earlier."

Benjamin hesitated before replying carefully "He's just had a lot going on, he'll be fine."

"He'll _be_ fine; I thought you said it didn't matter anymore?"

"Well…It doesn't, he just needs time to clear his head."

"Oh, well I can talk to him if you want."

Benjamin was now realising what Margaret was trying to do and find out some gossip so starting to get annoyed he replied "No it's alright, we were going to talk about it when we got back but…"

"Oh so this something you don't want us to know? What has he done? Or isn't it that bad and you just don't want to tell us purely out of spite!"

"Not everything is about you Margaret."

"I never said that it was, I just don't understand why you won't tell us things, Rebecca and James keep us informed."

"Good for them."

"I still don't understand why you had to move over here"

"Look I don't mean to be rude when I say this but it's really not any of your business, and you've got no right to know."

After that huffing and puffing Margaret climbed upstairs to bed. Next morning at breakfast the tension in the air between Benjamin and Margaret was high and Catherine was wondering what had happened last night that she didn't know about.

Margaret was clearly sick of Benjamin and the dirty looks he kept on giving her so she decided to take matters into her own hands and ask Dylan outright

"Dylan, are you doing drugs?"

"What?!" Dylan spluttered into his cereal as the whole table looked up at either Margaret or Dylan.

"Where on earth would you get that idea?" asked Catherine loudly

Margaret didn't answer so Benjamin did for her "She thinks that was the reason Dylan was upset yesterday."

"What is your problem!" said Dylan standing up "Mum clearly doesn't want you to know why I was upset so don't go trying to work it out by asking stupid questions like that!" and he stormed out of the room.

"I got it" said Benjamin and he followed Dylan out of the kitchen and into the living room closing the door behind him.

"Well, I know when I'm not wanted" said Margaret her head held high, while she stood up and went of the other kitchen door leading outside.

"Is everything ok, did we turn up at a bad time?" Rebecca asked her sister concerned.

"No you're all alright, I just wasn't ready to put up with mum yesterday and clearly Dylan wasn't either."

"Well if there is anything you need."

Catherine nodded "Thanks"

Benjamin then walked back in the room and said "He's alright. Rosie wants to know what's going on now though as well" he picked up his glass and bowl and put it in the dishwasher.

Catherine rubbed her eyes with her hand and sighed "Ok, alright" she said softly and quietly, and with that she too left the room leaving everyone who was still sitting down in the kitchen entirely confused.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Ok so I re-wrote this chapter 4 times because I wanted to show Margaret's side of the story but without getting rid of the 'my mother is so annoying' view. I have never been involved in any of the issues in this story so I find it hard to empathise with the characters but I try to make them realistic. So everything in here is just from what I've read (or watched on the TV). Oh and I don't really know anything about cancer either other than from what I've read so I'm sorry if doesn't really make sense. I think I should tell you that I've raised the rating T because of mentions of domestic abuse in this chapter, but you're supposed to be 13 or over if you're on this site anyway. I also realised that I've been spelling Katherine's name with a C instead of a K (I blame it on my friend because I'm so used to writing her name with a C) anyway I've changed it in the summary but I'm not going to change all of chapter 1 sorry :p In reply to Dntgkad - Don't worry I'm not going to turn this into a Dylan and Lily story, I honestly don't really like them together anyway, but I am going to keep Catherine alive for a little while so I'll just see where the story goes. You did sort of give me the idea for this though so thanks :D. Enjoy :)**

* * *

Later that day, Margaret had come back into the house and stormed upstairs without saying a word. Benjamin had thought this was extremely rude considering that it was their house she was staying in but Katherine hadn't said anything so he thought he'd let it go. He knew she was under a lot of stress and he didn't want to make the problem worse.

Katherine was sitting on her bed in her room contemplating what to do when she heard her mother arrive. She ignored her not even wanting to look at her, she didn't deserve the right to know what was going on from the way she had behaved Katherine's entire life, but Rosie did. Her daughter was only just 6 and she couldn't leave her. She needed a mum. But if she was to have her mum taken away from her, she at least deserved to know why and what was happening even if she wouldn't fully understand everything.

Benjamin walked into the room. Katherine could see he was trying to keep calm for her but really it was killing him to see her like this. However, Benjamin honestly didn't know how much longer he could last. It had only been one day since he found out about the cancer and the idea had been slowly eating him up. It didn't make the matter better that Margaret was here either. He knew that Katherine loved her deep down, she just tried to hide it and however hard he tried to get her to admit it she never would. "Do you think we should tell her?" he asked

"Rosie?"

"No, I meant your mother."

"Are you serious?" she said turning to look at him

"Well she's going to find out eventually, maybe you should just tell her. Then she won't be acting like this and…" he hesitated before he continued "…you'll probably feel less guilty if you tell her."

"Guilty. You think I feel guilty!" she said raising her voice as she stood up "I will never feel guilty for anything to do with that woman! She is the one who should feel guilty, not me. She doesn't have the right to know anything about my life and especially not this."

"You don't mean that" he said calmly.

"Oh don't I?"

"Why do you always seem to isolate yourself whenever she's around?" he cried "It wouldn't be so bad but you distance yourself from me, Dylan and Rosie as well. It's like you don't want to let any of us in!"

"Maybe I don't" she said coolly

"They're your children" he muttered turning away

"And considering that you're my husband you should know by now that I tell you everything! So don't you dare say that I don't"

"I'm not doing, you just seem to bottle things up whenever your mother's here. If she wasn't here neither of us would be so stressed, and that would be much better for you considering the circumstances"

"Oh I'm sorry, do you want to tell her to leave or shall I."

"I'm not saying it's your fault that she's here it's just really bad timing. I just think you should open up to her"

"Just because she gave birth to me doesn't give her the right to know this. She gave that role away years ago and she hasn't earnt it back. She isn't my mother! She didn't want to know me at birth so why should she want to know me now! What is so different about this time in my life?"

"Well in case you haven't noticed there might not be chance to change things if…" he faltered

"You did not just say that" she said hurt flashing across her face and he realised that was just what she didn't want him to say.

"Look I'm sorry," he said lowering his voice again with a lot of willpower "But it could happen and you know it. You're probably closer to believing it than me anyway."

Katherine looked as though she wanted to say something but changed her mind.

"Look all I'm asking you to do, is give her another chance. You owe it to yourself and she might have changed."

If anything that angered Katherine even more "She didn't want me then and she still doesn't want me now! People don't change!" she stormed out of the room and into the bathroom where she locked the door and sat down on the cold hard floor, letting the tears that had been threatening to fall all day finally come crashing down.

Unfortunately for Katherine during the argument her voice had carried and although nobody downstairs had heard the yelling, for the people on the second floor it was a whole different story. Dylan had come upstairs after breakfast and he had not been downstairs since, he was sitting at his desk trying to clear his mind by drawing, when he heard his mum and dad's voices. However Dylan was not the only person who was upstairs at the current time. The women who had been the cause of the argument had heard everything and was now sitting down on her bed feeling extremely uncomfortable. She did want her daughter and she thought Katherine knew that but things had just been so difficult back then.

Benjamin knocked on the bathroom door "Katherine, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" he asked. There was no answer so he tried again "Look I'm sorry, I just got fed up with her and I know you're tired of the way she's been acting." Still nothing "We don't have to tell her."

Then unexpectedly came the sound of Katherine's voice from the other side of the door "I know" she said "I'm not bothered about that"

Benjamin sighed "I know and I'm sorry for what I said, I really didn't mean it like that, but it's all going to be ok in the end" he said quietly, unsure of what else to say.

"Not that, it's weird that doesn't seem to be bother me that much at the moment. It'll probably hit me when it all starts happening for real." Then in answer to his unasked question she said "It's just my stupid mother again"

The door lock clicked to signal Katherine had opened it. He pushed it open and saw her sitting there against the wall facing the door; tears streaming down her face.

"Come here" he said sitting down next to her and pulling her into a hug. They sat like that for a few moments, with her crying into his shoulder, until she pulled back.

"I'm sorry" she said wiping her eyes.

"Don't be silly" he said stroking her hair.

"I just wish that she would tell me why. I mean she kept Rebecca and I know she's four years younger than me but… I don't know. When she took me back in when I was twelve she always used it against me. Whenever I did anything wrong she said she was glad that she got rid of me and that she was stupid for even considering letting me live with her again. It was only because of my dad…"

Benjamin just sat there quietly letting her rant and rave about her mother. Next minute they heard footsteps coming down the landing to the bathroom. The door was still open so Margaret saw them straight away. "Katherine can I talk to you for a moment please" she said.

Katherine just nodded and Benjamin kissed her on the forehead before standing up and leaving the bathroom. Katherine made no move to speak so Margaret pulled a hankie out of her pocket.

"Here" she said holding the hankie out for Katherine to take.

"What do you want?" she asked refusing to take it.

Margaret sighed "I..I wanted to apologise"

"Yeah well it's a bit late for that"

"Well I want to chance to try"

"I don't think you deserve the chance"

"No I probably don't"

"How do you even know what we were talking about anyway?"

Margaret did have the grace to look uncomfortable "I heard you and Ben arguing"

"His name's Benjamin, and if you involved yourself in my life more without tab hanging, you would know that."

"I wasn't tab hanging" Katherine just gave her a look that said 'clearly you were' so she quickly changed the subject. "Look, I wanted to tell you why I didn't keep you."

"I already know why; you've told me. You were really young and I was, and would have been, a hindrance"

"That's not the real reason and you know it" Katherine didn't say anything so Margaret continued "It's really hard to love a child when you hate the man who got you pregnant in the first place"

"What?" Katherine questioned, shock taking over from her stubbornness.

Margaret turned her back to Katherine and pulled her top up. Beneath the t-shirt was a huge scar running from her shoulder blade down to her opposite hip. "Oh my God" gasped Katherine "Dad did that to you" she said her eyes wide.

"Sort of" Margaret said turning back round "Peter didn't do this to me if that's what you mean but yes your dad did"

"What are you saying?"

"I left your father when I found out I was pregnant with you. We weren't married, so one day I just left without one look back. I couldn't let him hurt you."

Katherine just sat there trying to take it all in. "I was only 17 and I didn't know what to do" Margaret continued "So yes my mother, your grandma, encouraged me to give you up. She knew that most of the caring would fall onto her shoulders and she didn't want that responsibility at her age.

"You have to know that I wanted to keep you, I really did. But the pain and hardships of the pregnancy just kept weighing down on my shoulders. I had no support and I knew it wasn't fair to you to raise you without a father. I just I didn't seem to feel anything for you and I'm…I'm so sorry" Her voice cracked and tears streamed down her face.

"I thought it might change when you were born. You know that first time when you hold your child and the whole pregnancy and hardships and heartache is all worth it, but it never came" she lowered her voice to a whisper "I felt nothing, I just felt emotionless. Well nothing good I mean, you look so much like your dad it scared me and I…"

"I was just a child"

"I know, I know and I'm so sorry"

"And you only took me back in because Peter wanted you to."

"Yes. I mean you know how I treated you and you didn't deserve any of it but I made it clear that if I'd had the choice I would have left you where you were. Partly because I knew you'd hate me and I was a coward; I didn't want to face that. But partly because after 12 years I'd built a new and happy life for myself and I didn't want to be reminded of the demons from my past."

Katherine nodded "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"You were happy to have a dad, Peter I mean. I told you that he had no say when I gave you up for adoption and you didn't see him as evil like you saw me."

"I never thought you were evil."

"Maybe not but I was always the bad guy. I didn't like it, no but you'd just been given a family, even if it was just a father and a sister, it was more than you'd had before. I couldn't take that away from you."

They sat in silence for a moment before Katherine spoke "Thank you"

"What for?"

"For actually caring, I never realised."

"Oh darling I'm sorry. I always cared about you really. I couldn't not, you're my daughter." She pulled Katherine into a long awaited hug.

"Mum?"

"Yeah"

"Why…why did Tom do what he did?"

"He just got angry at me for things"

"Like what?" then seeing her mother's reluctance she said "I'm sorry you don't have to tell me, it doesn't matter"

"You're right it doesn't matter, which means I should be able to talk about it. He had a lot of other encounters, shall we say, with other women. I noticed and I confronted him about it. He said I was too nosy for my own good and then it went on from there. I only confronted him that once of course, but when he realised what he could do to me, he didn't seem to want to stop."

"I'm sorry"

"It's alright, I should have kept my nose out of others people's business"

"Well it was your business as well; I mean he cheated on you. If Benjamin ever did anything like that to me I would do more than confront him."

"Oh I heard the way you yelled at him just then, poor bloke" Margaret laughed lightening the sullen atmosphere.

"Tom was right about one thing though" Katherine said

"What?"

"You are too nosy for you own good" Katherine smiled

"Hey"

"Oh come on, would we be having this conversation if you weren't?"

"I wasn't tab hanging you just shout very loud." Margaret said "So am I forgiven?"

The happiness vanished from Katherine's face "Mum…"

"No I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything. Me and my big mouth again."

"No it's not that. It's just…"

"I've broke past the first barrier but I still need to work on the other ninety-nine."

Katherine looked at her "You felt like you had no one who cared as a child" Margaret explained "Benjamin's right you do block people out, especially those who _should_ have been close to you. Can we just at least try to be a family?"

Katherine shook her head not knowing how to say or do anything else. "I already have my family; it takes longer than half an hour to add a new member." She stood up then a look of realisation crossed her face "Oh my God" she said "you're unbelievable."

Margaret looked at her with an innocent expression on her face "Oh come on don't look like that," said Katherine "You said all that just to get some gossip on what's going on in your daughter's life - it probably wasn't even true. All that just to find out exactly why Benjamin wanted me to talk to you and to have that conversation that I _'owe to myself'_."

"It was true Katherine, you have to believe that"

"Yeah, well I hate to break it to you but you don't just get the title of 'mother'. You have to earn it."

With that she walked out of the bathroom leaving Margaret behind alone looking dazed. Katherine was right she did have her family and her family deserved to know the truth. Rosie was sitting in a chair in the living room reading whilst Benjamin was on the settee on his laptop.

"Rosie can me and dad talk to you a minute please" she said looking at her husband

"Yeah" she said closing her book

"We'll go into the sun room. No one can hear us in there"

"Okay" she said slowly and uneasily

"It's alright you've not done anything wrong"

A look of relief flashed across her face "Or have you and you don't want us to know?" asked Benjamin

"No" Rosie said a little too quickly. Benjamin rolled his eyes thinking was his mischievous daughter could possibly have done this time, but decided to let it slide. He could do with a good laugh anyway.

They walked into the sun room and they sat down on the settee, Katherine pulling Rosie onto her lap. She was about to say something but then she froze, not sure how to start. So Benjamin started the conversation.

"Rosie you know we both love you, don't you" Rosie nodded "Well you have to know that no matter what happens we will always be with you. Even if we have to go far away we will always love you and we will always be with you in here" he said pointing at her heart.

"Far away…you're getting a divorce aren't you?" she said turning her head to her mother's chest

"No, no Rosie we aren't getting a divorce. What gave you that idea anyway?"

"Chloe at school said her mum and dad got a divorce because they were arguing all the time"

"Well your mum and I don't argue all the time"

"Dylan said you were arguing earlier"

"Did he now?" said Benjamin frustratingly.

"Well we weren't really arguing, I was just a bit annoyed with grandma that's all" said Katherine

"Ok" Rosie frowned "So why are you going far away?"

"Well your mum has got a horrible bug inside of her and it might send her away for a while"

"Like a poorly bug"

"Yes"

"But mum's not poorly" she said "When I'm poorly I have to lie down because I feel faint when I walk around"

Katherine laughed "Yeah you're right, I'm not very poorly now, but I might get really ill eventually"

"But then you'll get better" said Rosie, her parents hesitated "Won't you?" she added close to tears

"Yeah she will Rosie" he said.

"Good" said Rosie jumping off her mother's lap and giving her a hug "I'm sorry you're poorly. Is this why Dylan was upset?"

"Yeah it is"

"Oh ok, but you'll get better. I think he was just making a big deal out of nothing." She declared skipping off.

Benjamin laughed humourlessly "What a sensitive little girl"

Katherine just put her head in her hands "I hate lying to her"

"Well we weren't really lying to her. You are going to make a full recovery" he said putting his arm around her, as if trying to convince himself.

"But if I don't…"

"Katherine you will. I know what I said earlier but I was being stupid, I mean you can't…not" he said not wanting to think about any other possibilities.

"You were right with what you said earlier and with those figures and statistics-" she stopped suddenly, realising she'd gone too far.

"What do you mean?"

"My chances of recovery"

"Yeah but, you told me they were high. Katherine? When you say statistics…the recovery rate is high isn't it?"

"Well my chances of survival aren't exactly low compared to others but … 16% of people survive" she whispered.

"And you're going to be one of them. It's probably because most people who get it are old and they've been smoking all their lives" he felt like he was telling himself these lies to cover up the truth.

"Benjamin don't be ridiculous and stop trying to ignore that facts. It's a fairly new branch of cancer and they're still in experimental stages" she said.

Benjamin shook his head "It doesn't matter; you are going to recover despite the figures and statistics and everything else. You're strong and healthy; you're going to be fine."

Katherine looked at her husband directly in the eye. She grasped his hand and said what should have been said from the start "Benjamin, I'm going to die."

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed it, do you think my chapters are too long?**


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